This week we began our interviews for the contested City Council and Valley Medical commissioner races on the November ballot.
We should focus year around on the job our elected leaders are doing. The difference is that now we can actually do something about them: we can fire them for failing to do the job or we can send them back for another term with our thanks.
The challenge, of course, is to figure how to judge their job performance. By the very definition of the American experience, we do not pigeon-hole our politicians into one narrowly defined political belief. So, presumably, a candidate was elected in the first place because he or she found enough like-minded people to vote for them.
The Editorial Board is meeting that challenge through our endorsement process and we hope our efforts will offer guidance to voters in the general election. Majority rules on the five-member editorial board, just as it does at the ballot box.
The candidates we and you are interviewing are running for non-partisan positions, which supposedly frees them to govern without adhering to a constrictive political dogma. Still, if we listen carefully, we can hear the underlying political beliefs and world views that guide their decisions.
It really is important to listen to those undertones because they can easily and intentionally be drowned out by political rhetoric designed to put together a winning majority – under false pretenses.
Don’t get us wrong. We’re not naive. We know that we all bring to political judgment some political ideology. But what if you are looking for someone who will govern from the middle, who’s willing to listen to all sides, most assuredly compromise and then work to make sure the solution works?
A politician in that apolitical world could take some lessons from King Parker. He is gracious, but there’s an edge to Parker’s political persona when it’s needed. But without a doubt, he cares about Renton – all of Renton.
For 12 years his views have helped guide Renton through difficult financial times, heady times when the city was prospering and when tearful decisions had to be made. A good example of the last one is the downtown library.
Parker did his homework, put his businessman’s pencil to paper, listened, and then concluded that the city couldn’t afford to maintain its library system. The conclusion left him in tears, but what was best for the entire city was how to give residents a vibrant library system. The answer was the King County Library System.
As a city leader, Parker will be remembered as someone who used his marketing savvy to promote Renton, listened to the right people in deciding to preserve the Black River Riparian Forest and supported the city’s vibrant Neighborhood Program. There are others, but these are perfect examples of a politician who put others above self.
